With A Little Help From My Friends
by webofdreams89
Summary: It started out as nothing more than two people trying to forget. It wasn't long before it became something much, much more. NaruIno.


**Updated 12/20/21**

**Author's Notes: Okay, so yet another Naruto fic by yours truly. And what do you know, Naruto is paired with a different person in this story, just as he always seems to be. Blame the author, she likes several different peopled paired with the little orange ninja. But anyway, so I was bored the other day and simply sat down and this story just sort of came to life. I'm pretty happy with it too (for now anyway, who knows how I'll feel two days from now. By then I might think that it's sheer crap). I'm actually pretty proud of myself because this is the first bit of het I've written in who knows how long. You know, despite the fact that I wrote this more than two months ago and ****_finally_**** got around to editing it, being the lazy bum that I am.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. No matter how much he begs and pleads, they are just dead-set against selling me the rights. Boo.** **The song title is taken from the Beatles song ****_With A Little Help From My Friends_****. I do not own this either. John, Paul, Ringo, and George do. End of story. All hail the Legendary Four.**

**Summary: It started out as nothing more than two wounded friends coming together to forget. It wasn't long before it morphed into something much more. NaruIno. Rated Mature due to the quite a bit of explicitness in the beginning. **

o.O.o

**With A Little Help from My Friends  
Completed on August 15, 2008**

o.O.o

_Do you need anybody?  
_I just need somebody to love._  
Could it be anybody?  
_I want somebody to love.  
-The Beatles

o.O.o

As Ino was thrown hastily onto her bed, she felt her problems melt sweetly away, just as they always did. She threw her head back into the pillow, biting back a moan as hands trailed feather-soft down her body, delicate and rough and, _fuck,_ scorching at the same time. She felt eager hips slam into hers, their bodies sinking further into her mattress, sinking further into the abyss of sweet oblivion.

Her purple shirt was tossed to the floor without a second thought, bra following suit. Her skin was quickly covered with a pair of calloused, practiced roaming hands. She yanked his shirt up and over his head, adding it to the quickly growing pile of clothing. Her arms went around his back, pulling him closer to her, until bare skin was pressed to deliciously bare skin. Just the weight of him pressing into her, pushing her down further and further into the pool of pure and utter ecstasy, it was enough to make her forget.

For now, at any rate.

He dipped his head down for a kiss, his lips skimming over hers in a teasing and tantalizing way, making her gasp before thrusting her head upward to deepen the kiss. His tongue was skillful, surprisingly enough, wrestling with hers while taunting it, making her squirm, and wanting ever more. He took the hint, his hands settling between their bodies, fingers crushing her hips, making her brazenly pant.

_Masochist, _he thought with a knowing smirk, torturing her further by casting his hands down the sides of her luscious thighs, parting them so he could settle between her legs. Grinding his hips rawly down into her parted thighs earned him several new, half-moons cut into his back, deep enough to draw blood. Smirking, he knew they would be healed in practically no time just as they always were.

"Naruto," Ino gasped as he ducked his head to the left, leaving biting kisses across her neck and collarbone. Reaching behind her, he grasped the tie binding her tresses, pulling it from her hair in a solid motion, running his fingers through the silky blonde strands. Sighing softly as he buried his face in it, he could feel her attempting to exact a little revenge of her own.

She ran her hands down his chest, proceeding downward until one slid into his pants. Fingers slipped inside his boxers to wrap around his already taut and throbbing cock, fingernails running lightly over the velvety head, gently rubbing the liquid oozing from the tip into his skin almost hypnotically. He groaned, sapphire eyes rolling back in pleasure. Ino continued her manipulations, bringing his face to hers for another kiss.

Naruto's breath drew in ragged, raw gasps as her tongue prodded his. His hands moved from her hips to the front of her skirt, sliding it somewhat awkwardly off her legs. Ino's white bandages joined the clothes pile on the floor. Her hand slipped from his pants as his head moved down her body, trailing blazing kisses down her breasts, her stomach, the hollow between her hip bones, trailing until he reached the very place he sought.

His hands each grabbed a knee, spreading them further apart as he ducked in to plant a kiss on her swollen, oozing cunt, her whole body wriggling wildly under his hands at the intimate contact. Teasing again, he planted kisses on her inner thighs, close to her lips bur far enough away to make her squirm once more.

Naruto grinned up at her, relishing in the way her hips bucked beneath his touch. He leaned forward and used his tongue to trace her wet slit. Using one of his arms, he held her hips down. He knew how Ino got once he began, and he wasn't going to have a pussy-induced broken nose ruin the mood.

Using nimble fingers, he parted her lips, eyes taking in the wet hole not three inches from the tip of his nose. He took a deep breath and blew a stream of hot breath, causing her to buck under him, her back arching off the bed and her head sinking deeply into her pillow once again. He nudged her entrance with the tip of his nose.

Inclining his head, he gently brought his lips to the hole, holding her hips firmly into the bed as they tried to again rear upwards to meet him. He silently lapped up her juices, plunging his tongue deep inside her, her cry echoing off the pale walls of the dark room.

_Sure hope the neighbors don't mind,_ Naruto thought, withdrawing his tongue and then descending once again into her muff. Moving his tongue up, he flicked it across her clit and she nearly lost it then. He swirled his tongue around the nub, sucking it between his lips while he ran his tongue over it again and again and again. He slid one finger, two, into her slick hole, sliding them slowly in and out before he curled his fingers upward to rub over her g-spot.

Her whimpers grew more and more fervent as his maneuvers culminated, resulting in Ino's thighs clamping almost suffocatingly around his face as her entire body spasmed. Her hips sank again into the mattress, chest heaving, breasts jiggling appealingly as she caught her breath. After a moment, the haze receded somewhat from her eyes, focusing on Naruto, who still knelt between her legs, methodically rubbing her thigh.

Her hands went under his arms, pulling him back up to her. "You're a miracle worker with that tongue of yours, you know," she said breathily. "How'd you learn that?"

Hurt quickly flashed across his face and she instantly regretted opening her big mouth. God, why was she always saying such stupid things to him? "I'm sorry," she softly whispered, her hands on either side of his face.

"It isn't your fault, Ino," Naruto replied huskily.

"I know, but I didn't make it any better either," she admitted.

He said nothing, just continued to stare into her eyes. Trying to distract him, she put a hand on the still aching bulge in his jeans, purring, "Now if you don't hurry up and get inside me, I'm likely to explode, Naruto." She was only half kidding.

The previous injury etched into his face was replaced with one of his broad, ear-to-ear grins, blue eyes crinkling. She sighed, knowing that this was how she had fallen in love with the blond in the first place, with him smiling at her like that and making her feel like the only person in the whole world.

Orange pants also joined the pile on the floor, followed by Naruto's strange, patterned boxers. Ino's eyes grew slightly wide as they always did when she saw Naruto completely naked. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought the class 'dead last' would turn out to probably be the most well-endowed, let alone the most sincere and caring person she'd ever met.

Her fingers wrapped around his length, thumbing the tip as she brought him to her entrance before her arms went back around him. He nudged her entrance with the head, parting the moist lips to gain access. Ino's gasp died in her throat as she nodded, urging him onwards. Naruto planted an obliging kiss atop her forehead before throwing her legs over his shoulders, slowly pushing himself downward, driving himself into her slick hole painfully slowly.

He withdrew until only the swollen head of his cock remained inside, pushing back inside her tight pussy, nearly driving Ino out of her mind. Gradually, the thrusting grew faster and faster until his dick was pounding into her and there was nothing else except that feeling. But he could never get deep enough for either of them, ever trying and trying and trying to create more friction, more feeling, more….just _more._

Ino tensed up, her orgasm taking hold, far greater and more earth-shattering than the first. Her scream rang loud in Naruto's ears, loud and powerful and enough to make him cum on the spot, scorching white seed spilling forth from his cock, satisfyingly warm in Ino's cunt.

He withdrew, some of the ejaculate dribbling down between her round, firm ass-cheeks. Naruto lay on his back, an arm behind his head as cushioning, drawing the blond girl to him. She happily obliged, laying her head on his still heaving chest. She smiled when his free arm wrapped protectively around her, tracing small circles onto her lower back.

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him right then, uttering the four simple words that she hadn't yet been given the courage to say:

_Naruto, I love you._

o.O.o

Don't get me wrong, it had started out as nothing more than two friends having sex to pass the time, to forget the wrongs that had been done to them both, to forget. Ino had just discovered that the person she cared about most, Shikamaru, was in love with that damned kunoichi from the Sand. It hurt, stung like hell, but she was coping, Sakura helping her get over the betrayal and rejection. It didn't take long, however, for her to discover that Sakura was doing a bit of betrayal herself.

They were seventeen when Sasuke came back to the village. The Hokage sentenced him to six months in prison, five years of probation. It was a light sentence, no doubt due to the vouching of Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura. After all, he _had_ been traumatized as a child when his whole clan was wiped out in a single night by his brother, even if, as it was discovered, that his brother was innocent in a round about sort of way.

Sakura visited Sasuke in jail day after day, telling him that she still loved him, with Sasuke all the while rejecting her. Eventually, the constant dismissal got to her and she agreed to date Naruto. The blond ninja was ecstatic, happier than he had ever been in his entire life, lavishing gifts upon the girl with money he didn't really have and treating her like a princess.

That is, until Sasuke had finally been released from prison. He sought Sakura out, determined to begin the reconstruction of his clan. Overjoyed, she tossed Naruto out like an old sock.

And then Sasuke married her.

Saying that Naruto had been crushed by the blow would have been an understatement. He was shattered, broken, destroyed. He stopped smiling, laughing, joking, pulling pranks. In his own right, he had adopted some of Sasuke's cold, aloof personality, only doing what he was told, completing his missions and heading home to god knows what.

One night, however, after a particularly difficult mission he had been forced to endure with Sakura and Sai as his teammates, Ino found the blond drinking his life away in a bar. Truth be told, she had been planning to do the same thing, believing that drinking herself into a stupor would be by far preferable than actually having to feel anything for the night.

But seeing Naruto sitting there, countless empty bottles of sake resting in front of him, she forgot her problems temporarily, taking a seat next to her friend.

She knew that the two of them had never been particularly close, both always vying for the spot at the center of attention, but she could never deny the big heart Naruto possessed. There had been plenty of times when he'd helped her out and didn't have to, never asking for anything in return when he could have easily kept walking like everyone else did. She decided to do him the same.

"Drinking isn't going to make things disappear," she said knowingly, sighing.

"Will for a little while," he replied, his voice stone-cold sober. She quirked an eyebrow, wondering how someone could down roughly six bottles of sake and still be in the condition to say perfectly conditioned words.

"You and I both know that isn't true," she gently chided, slipping her arm comfortingly through his.

He turned to look at her, surprised etched onto his face before the adopted neutrality replaced it. "Yeah, you're right," he agreed after a moment, voice defeated. He looked up at her after sliding a still half-filled bottle down the bar. "Did you know that I can't even get drunk?" he asked unhumorously.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I can't get drunk," he repeated. "The kyuubi prevents it from happening, just like it heals me when I'm injured or sick. Physically, anyway."

"I didn't know that," she replied softly, gently rubbing his arm with her fingers tips.

"Yep," he said, "couldn't get drunk if I drank a whole shipment truck of sake. Believe me, I tried once."

Ino laughed lightly, tugging his arm as she stood. "Come on, Naruto, let's get out of here."

He stood, allowing himself to be dragged along beside her, knowing that hanging out with Ino had to be leaps and bounds better than pretending to drink himself under the table.

"Where are we going?" he asked after a few minutes, not recognizing the section of the village they were strolling through.

"To my apartment," she replied equably.

"Your apartment? Why are we going there?" he asked, stopping, forcing her to stop as well or let go of him.

"Naruto, tonight I'm going to help you forget," she said, looking up into his broken blue eyes.

"Why?" he asked scarcely above a whisper. "Why would you do that for me?"

She smiled slightly. "Because, Naruto, you are my friend and I don't like seeing you so sad. You don't deserve to be sad."

He was quiet for a long time, simply looking down at her as if he had never really seen her before. "You'd do that for me," he said calmly, not as a question but as a statement.

"Yes," Ino replied, "but maybe my other reason is a little selfish. Don't forget that I've had my heart broken too. While I'm helping you forget, you can help me forget too."

Nodding, Naruto replied softly, "Alright, Ino."

She smiled at him, tugging him along once again.

"And Ino," he said uncertainly.

"Hmm?"

"Thanks."

Laughing mischievously, she replied, "Don't thank me yet, Naruto. Thank me when you've got me screaming your name into my pillow."

o.O.o

That's how it started. It wasn't long before Naruto and Ino were getting together once a week, twice, every night.

And at first, it was great. A companionable friendship formed between the two, friends with benefits that also talked about their feelings and such. It wasn't long, however, before Ino stopped wanting to talk about how Shikamaru had hurt her, stopped wanting to listen to Naruto pine after her former best friend , whom she hadn't yet forgive either. It wasn't long before Ino's daydreams and thoughts of Shikamaru were replaced with daydreams and thoughts of Naruto, not long at all before sleeping with Naruto every night meant something more than a means to forget her problems. And is wasn't long before she was filled with despair that was fresher, newer, and all the more potent, knowing that Naruto's heart still belonged fully to Sakura even while his body belonged to her.

The ache in her heart continued growing, always masked with an eager smile and open arms whenever she saw the blond.

It wasn't long before she grew desperate, for advice, for help, for anything that would help her situation. So she turned to the person she'd always relied on, ever since she was a child, despite their falling out.

Uncomfortably, she stood in front of the door to Shikamaru's apartment, knocking but thinking it was probably a good idea to run away before anyone answered the door.

Temari pulled the door open a few moments later, her eyes growing angry when she saw just who it was at the door. She was ready to close it, when Ino put her hand in the way, saying softly, "Please, Temari, I just need to talk to Shikamaru."

"Alright," Temari resigned, pulling the door open just enough to allow Ino passage. She followed the sand kunoichi into the living room, where Shikamaru sat, bent over a scroll.

He appeared surprised and perhaps a little shocked to see her there when he looked up. They had hardly said two words in the several months that had passed since their blow-out when she confessed her feelings for him. And there was also the fact that Ino's eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, uncustomary for her usual grinning and cocky face.

"I didn't expect to see you here, Ino," he said in an attempt to break the ice. He glanced quickly at Temari, who had taken to leaning against the wall near the doorway, before his eyes landed again on the blond.

"I'm sorry," Ino said somberly. "I know you don't want to see me, but I didn't know who else to talk to."

It was true that Shikamaru had been angry that day when they'd had the fight, but Ino was still his best friend. He cared for her deeply.

"What is it?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

At his questions, Ino's shoulders began to shake as sobs racked her body. Tentatively, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trying to reassure her, though he didn't know why. Eventually, the crying subsided.

"I'm sorry," she repeated, starting to stand. "I'll just leave."

Grabbing her arm, Shikamaru pulled her back down to the couch. "No, tell me what's wrong."

Nodding, she launched into her story of how she and Naruto began having sex. "There's just one problem," she said, her voice quaking.

"You fell in love with him," Shikamaru said comprehensively. Ino nodded vigorously.

Realizing that the girl wasn't here to break up her relationship, Temari took a seat on the other side of Ino, her arm also wrapping around the girl.

"I do, I love his so much, more than anything, but he still loves Sakura."

"Have you told him how you feel?" Temari asked her gently.

Ino shook her head. "If I told him, then he would leave me. For good. He's only doing this because he thinks it's no strings attached. And it is, or was supposed to be at least. I didn't think I'd fall in love him. I mean, he was always so goofy as a kid, and I think I still saw him that way at the time."

"Ino, you'll never know if you don't tell him. And more importantly, he'll never know," Temari said. "That poor boy's almost never known love in his entire life. He might change his mind once he realized that he is loved."

Shikamaru nodded, laughing hollowly. "Are things _ever _no strings attached with Naruto?"

o.O.o

"I don't understand," Shikamaru said after Ino left. "She spends the most time with him. How does she not notice that he _actually_ smiles now? That it's her who makes him smile?"

"You're guess is as good as mine," Temari said offhand, sitting next to him. "I'm just glad that she finally realized how she felt."

"Hopefully he realizes how he feels soon, too, before they're both bald and gray and far too old to enjoy it."

o.O.o

Temari and Shikamaru had convinced her that she needed to tell Naruto how she really felt. And she did feel better, knowing that she had made up with her best friend and even maybe gained a new friend in the process.

Mind made up, she went to go find Naruto. They made love as they always did, but that night, as he held her afterwards, her heart began to pound, began to pound in a different way than it had not twenty minutes previous.

"Naruto," she said, looking at him.

"Yes Ino?" he asked quietly, noting the sudden serious tone of her voice.

"I, um, well I..."

"You know that you can tell me anything, Ino," Naruto said, gently squeezing her arm in encouragement and offering her a smile.

"I know," she murmured. "It's just that…Naruto, I'm in love with you."

"What?" he asked incredulously before starting to laugh. She could feel her heart breaking.

"I'm serious," she said quietly, her eyes beginning to water. "I really do love you."

He rolled onto his side to gaze at her, seeing just how serious she really was. "Ino, I—"

"It's okay, Naruto," she said, leaping up from the bed. "I didn't expect you to return the sentiment."

She began throwing on clothes in a daze, not noticing just how dizzy she was growing. Naruto, too, rose from the bed. "Ino," he said, worry evident in his voice, "please wait."

But she was already out the door. Hastily tossing on a pair of pants, he following her. He nearly caught up to her when she felt her whole body go numb, the ground slipping out from under her, her head becoming light…

Two strong arms caught her before she fell. He quickly checked for a pulse, feeling it in her wrist, wild and erratic, but there nonetheless. Scooping her up, he sprinted the entire way to the hospital, her body carefully tucked to his.

"Naruto!" Shizune said, watching as her blond ran into the building. "Naruto, what is it?"

"It's Ino!" he said breathlessly. "She fainted!"

Nodding, Shizune said, "Follow me, we'll get her a room."

Naruto followed the dark haired kunoichi down the hall, and into a hospital room. Lying Ino gently down on the bed, Naruto quickly kissed her forehead, whispering into her ear, "Silly Ino. If only you knew just how much I return the sentiment."

Shizune raised her eyebrows in puzzlement before ushering him out of the room.

o.O.o

"You're awake," Shizune said brightly as she walked into Ino's room. "You'll be pleased to know that you're perfectly healthy."

Nodding, Ino asked, "How did I get here?"

Raising an eyebrow, Shizune said, "Naruto brought you, of course. He's been wearing holes in the hallway for the past two hours waiting for news of you."

"If I'm okay, then why didn't you just tell him that?" Even still, even with her heart cracking in two inside her heart, Ino didn't want Naruto to suffer any more pain than need be.

Blushing slightly, Shizune said, "Well, like I said, you are perfectly healthy. But you do have…a condition. It's actually why you fainted in the first place. It happens sometimes."

"A condition," Ino repeated monotonously, not really hearing much after that.

Nodding, the dark haired woman went on. "Ino, you're going to have a baby."

The blond's eyes grew wide, what little color she had left draining from her face. "I'm pregnant?" she repeated disbelievingly.

"I'll just leave you so you can get used to the idea." With that, Shizune exited the room.

"_Well?" _Naruto demanded the second she closed the door.

"You can go see her now," Shizune replied, whistling as she continued down the hallway.

A moment later, Naruto burst into the room like a hurricane, enough to make Ino's head spin.

"Ino!" he cried, quickly sitting on the edge of her bed, his arms enveloping her in a tight hug. "I'm so glad that you're okay!" He pulled back, looking into her eyes.

"Naruto, there's something I have to tell you," she said. Sure, it broke her heart, knowing that he didn't feel the same way about her, but the baby was still his and he and every right to know about it. The first little bit of family he would ever know.

"Okay," he said, "but there's something I have to tell you first.

"Ino, you were wrong when you said I didn't return the sentiment. So wrong. I love you, I really do. You were the only one there for me when my heart was broken, you helped me and made me smile and laugh again. And you put up with all my crap without a single complaint." His hand gently caressed her cheek. "Don't ever doubt that I love you."

Ino smiled, a heavy flush overtaking her face as she hastily leaned forward to kiss him. "Naruto," she said when they finally pulled away from each other, "you have know idea how happy I am."

"There was something you wanted to tell me?" he prompted, grasping her hand tightly in his own.

"Naruto, there are going to be three of us soon," she said.

He stared at her, confused.

Shaking her head with a small smile, she rephrased, "Naruto, you're going to be a father."

"_What?!"_ he said, his face brightening into the smile that she used to be so accustomed to seeing, that she had taken for granted; illuminate, dazzling, intense. It was almost too much.

And when Naruto threw his arms around her again, she couldn't help but feel as if the world had finally realigned itself in the universe.

"I love you, Ino," Naruto whispered into her ear. "So much. And I'm going to love our baby. We're going to be great parents, I just know it."

o.O.o

"Ino!" Naruto said brightly, walking into the kitchen, swiping a piece of their still cooking dinner from the pot. "I'm starving."

Ino rolled her eyes.

"What?" he asked. "The last time I ate was—"

"A whole hour ago," she finished, smiling wryly at him. "Honestly, Naruto, I'm supposed to be the one with the erratic eating habits. _I'm_ pregnant. What's your excuse?"

He pouted before sticking his tongue out at her. "I can't help it if I have a high metabolism."

"But you can help being such a pig," she said, returning to the front of the stove to stir their dinner a few times. She felt strong arms snake around her, gently rubbing her very pregnant stomach.

"You love me anyway," he whispered into her ear, quickly kissing her cheek.

"I know," Ino murmured, abandoning the food to clasp Naruto's hands, her fingers idly toying with the shiny golden band adorning his ring finger. "I know I do."

_The End._

o.O.o

**More Author's Notes: Alright, so this story was the slightest bit on the sappy side, but hopefully I am forgiven. Right? RIGHT? Critism WELCOME! Flames laughed at. And all you have to do is review!**

**webofdreams89**


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